The Adventures of a Christian Mom, Grandma and cancer surviver!

Not that Fall is my favorite season, but it IS nice to see all the leaves change colors – I’ll give you that. Also love apples – apple anything! Just made a small apple crisp the other day because a friend gave me a small bag of apples (the crisp is almost gone!). I know lots of people live for the changing of the seasons especially for the ‘pumpkin-everything’ – pies, cookies, cakes, brownies, etc, not counting all the various coffee drinks!

I still have a few more Summer recipes to share so I’ll try to place them in this post before we get colder weather and all the summer recipes are put away until next year.

============

Cookies ‘n Cream Brownies

1 box brownie mix plus
ingredients to prepare (as listed
on box)
16 Oreo cookies
4 Hershey “Cookies ‘n Creme candy
bars
melted chocolate, for drizzling
(optional)
–
Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Line a 8 X 8″square baking pan
with parchment paper. Prepare
brownie batter per box instructions.
Pour batter into prepared pan then
lay down Oreo cookies on top in
an even layer, pressing cookies down
so the batter covers them almost
completely. Bake 35 minutes until a
toothpick inserted into center comes
out mostly clean. Let cool completely
in pan. Place unwrapped candy bars
in medium microwave-safe bowl.
Microwave on 50 per cent power
until they are melted – pour over
the brownies & smooth into even
layer using a spatula. Refrigerate
10 minutes then drizzle top with
melted chocolate, if using. Cut
into squares. Serves 16

Our weather is gorgeous today: sunny &
86 degrees F. I read that this Fall is going to
be un-seasonably warm for much longer
than usual – interesting…

I started a new baby afghan today – mint
green (sport weight yarn) in another knit
lace pattern. Not exactly sure where I
found this pattern; apparently I just copied
down the pattern without including the
site/place I found it – no name, either, but
it’s a rather easy pattern and works up
nicely. (Yes, I’m back to my old ‘several
projects on the needles’ at once.) Currently
there’s the 3/4ths finished knit baby afghan
in white & stripes of pink, green, blue & yellow;
a 3/4ths done scarf for the homeless, the new
mint green afghan and am also working on
making more baby headbands for Detroit
Vets baby shower NEXT year. (The lady in
charge said they were a big hit – this year
I only made 8 so I’m attempting to get more
done for next year.) Oh…and baby hats
whenever I feel ‘inspired’ to make them. I
have a ‘go’ bag which has the supplies to
make hats – I usually take that with me if
I’m going to an appointment or know I’m
going to sit for long periods of time; also
have the same thing in my car – I don’t
like wasting time just sitting; would much
rather be doing something constructive –
know what I mean?

Last night was the Pick Up date for all of the lovely knitted & crocheted baby items for the upcoming Detroit Veterans Hospital’s Annual Baby Shower. The lady who is the Women’s Coordinator for the event told us there will be 17 Moms attending the shower. This year our group donated 87 knit & crocheted items! 24 blankets, 42 hats, 11 sets of booties, 2 snuggle sacks and 8 baby headbands – I’d say we MORE THAN covered the moms this time! (I was going to post all of the photos, but there are 17 photos, so I decided not to). The ladies in my group continue to amaze me with their generosity – so happy they participated in showing love to these Vets Moms!

Crumb Topping:In large stir oats, brown sugar & flour.
Using a pastry blender, cut in butter
until topping resembles coarse crumbs –
sprinkle on top of apples in pan. Bake
40-45 minutes until apples are tender. If
it is starting to brown too fast, cover top
with foil the last 5-10 minutes of baking.
Cool slightly.

Homemade caramel:Place all ingredients in medium saucepan
over medium-low to medium heat. Cook,
while whisking gently, 5-7 minutes until
thicker. Turn off heat. Serve warm or
refrigerate until cold. Drizzle caramel on
top of apple slab pie then serve.
Serves 25

In medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, lemon
zest, baking powder, salt & nutmeg using
a fork until well combined. Using 2 butter
knives or a pastry cutter, cut in cold bits
of butter into flour mixture until it
resembles a coarse meal with small pea-
sized pieces of butter. In small bowl whisk
eggs & vanilla with a fork & gently toss
egg mixture into flour/butter mixture
until moistened & dough starts to hold
together & create clumps of dough.
Sprinkle cobbler topping evenly over
blueberries in crockpot. Cover opening
of crockpot with paper towels or a clean
kitchen towel; cover with lid. (toweling
will absorb any condensation that will
collect on lid while cooking, preventing
it from dripping onto cobbler.) Cook
on High 3-4 hours until you can see the
juices from the blueberries bubbling
around edges of crockpot. Check
cobbler at 3 hour mark & only cook
for additional time if needed. Turn
off crockpot & carefully remove lid
& toweling. Let cobbler cool slightly
before serving. Serve with vanilla
ice cream or whipped cream, if
desired. Serves 8

(recipe: crockpotladies.com)

=================

I know that this week has been very trying
for SO many people in our country – prayers
sent out for all those that battled the storms &
fires – I can’t even imagine.

I noticed in our local paper that they are saying
the gas prices will rise due to the recent weather
situations; yesterday I observed our local station’s
prices are up to $2.59/9 (from $2.39/9) – it’s
understandable. I would imagine produce will
greatly increase in price as well as other items
that would normally be shipped by land; we’ll
see.

Our weather is in the low 70’s during the day,
sunny (supposed to rain tomorrow).

(would you believe I just wrote this entire blog post then accidentally hit a key & wiped it all out!? UGH!)

Our weather has been all over the place lately: sunny/cloudy/rainy, in the 70’s to 80’s. Did I catch the eclipse? Yep, on TV – it was interesting.

Monday found me checking out a new store to our area: Hobby Lobby. Lots of friends have commented on how great the store/company is so I went to their Grand Opening. They had a Greeting Team and refreshment table – I politely side-stepped that & went to check out (you guessed it) the YARN DEPARTMENT! Was I impressed? Nope – although their prices for skeins was a little lower, so was the SIZE of their skeins! I was looking for BIG balls, NEW colors/combinations/variegated yarns – not impressed (and I thoroughly checked the entire department TWICE). Guess I’ll stick with JoAnn’s, Michaels, Meijers & WalMart for yarns. (There were tons of people there – even some men! All were Ooooooing & Ahing over the products – not for me).

On the knitting scene, finally finished the blue Tassel baby blanket – you’ve seen it ‘in progress’ – it’s a beautiful pattern to waaaay too fussy for me to ever knit it again. (Am holding it for a friend who’s expecting in February and doesn’t yet know the sex of her baby):

I also started another baby blanket for same person – in case she has a girl. This one is done using a variegated fuzzy yarn for the color strips – the yarn goes from light yellow to light peach to a darker peach to white (am going to have to cut out the white parts – they wouldn’t show against the white background. You know me – I’ll be able to use the fuzzy white for baby hats!)

Lastly I finished a ‘needy/homeless’ people scarf – the colors don’t come through in photographs – the yarn is very fuzzy and in all shades of Fall colors: reds, oranges, yellows, dark greens, dark browns.

(insert I’M MAD here – just realized all the recipes I had in the first try at this post will now be GONE – I copy them to this post then erase the original . . . ugh!)

It’s also time to give things away –
tomorrow I meet with the
coordinator of Crisis Pregnancy
Center’s Mobile Unit to hand off
four baby blankets. They give the
expectant moms a blanket if they
agree not to abort their babies.

Coming up in a few weeks is the
pick up date for all knit/crocheted
baby items for Detroit Veterans
Hospital’s Baby Shower. I love
seeing all the wonderful items
my ladies create and know that
the ladies receiving them will be
grateful to have something
hand-made, as well.

Guess I’d better wrap up this post,
eh? Hope you are all well and enjoying
the last vestiges of Summer.

If you’ve read my blog for very long you know I LOVE knitting – especially if it’s challenging (Why? I’m not sure!). There is a wonderful site on line that’s free; it’s called PINTEREST and it has all kinds of ideas for almost anything you can think of: crafts, cooking, fitness, home improvement, fashion, building, inspirational sayings, tips on how to raise foods/yard plants, etc. – if you think it – it’s probably on that site!

They have a HUGE area for all things knitting and, in particular: Lace Knitting. I have recently learned that I love the challenge of lace knitting. It doesn’t have to be a doily (which most of you are probably thinking of when you hear lace knitting) – almost all of the baby blankets I have knit lately have been lace patterns. For example, the picture above is a lace knitting pattern (one I’ve bookmarked for a future baby blanket). There is really only ONE problem with Pinterest: once you start looking you get MESMERIZED! You can lose entire hours just looking at all the various things there! Sometimes you end up seeing a lot of the same thing; for example, I was looking at a particular site that just dealt with lace knitting – there were probably at least 12 patterns with the same photos repeated over & over & over! Why? Not really sure – you just learn to kind of skip/skim over them. If you have some extra time give Pinterest a try – I’m sure there’s something on there you would find interesting! (even recipes!)

Glaze: Place all glaze ingredients in a
small saucepan; bring to boil
over high heat. Reduce heat
to medium-low & reduce by
50% (should be like thick syrup).
Heat a gas grill OR broiler on
High heat. Generously glaze ribs
with glaze. Grill each side
approximately 5 minutes –
watch them carefully so they
don’t burn – just get bubbly
on the surface & slightly crisp.
Serves 4

Today is another busy day so I’m taking
a little time to relax here on my computer
as well as knitting a few rows on both
baby blankets. Among my purchases at
WalMart yesterday were two very large
balls of yarn: one a bright, cheery
yellow and a bright blue – sometimes
it’s hard for me to CURB my desire to
start another project when I see a really
cute pattern or nice baby yarn. Ah, the
‘fun’ of being a bit ADHD (Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) – No,
I don’t actually have ADHD (my middle
son does) – basically you get easily
distracted by almost anything! I’m not
that bad, but when it comes to yarns,
knitting & new patterns – I’m there!

It’s looking like another beautiful day here – in the mid 70’s & sunny! So far this week my babysitting has been rather easy (I say that quietly – I’m happy with seeing the little guy but rather enjoy a LITTLE sitting rather than 8+ hour days, back to back). The other grandfather is currently in the hospital as of Saturday – they think he had another stroke but can find no signs of it so they’re running tests. I feel really bad for the grandmother & daughter (my oldest son’s girlfriend & Mom to the baby) – they have enough stress in their lives so this just added more. Grandfather has had a history of strokes and has been losing weight (15 lb. in a little over a month) so they think he also has a slow bleed somewhere, hence why they’re keeping him at the hospital for testing. I only babysat Tuesday 2:30 – 5, so that was easy and the baby was in a great mood. Tuesday was Knit/Crochet Night, last night was special needs group. THIS SATURDAY the knit group talked me into arranging something new for us; this Saturday is NATIONAL KNIT IN PUBLIC DAY! We’re going to meet on Panera Bread’s patio at 10 a.m. and just do what we all love – KNIT (and I included our crocheters, too). Not sure just how many we’ll have (I’m guessing maybe 3?) and I’m not planning on staying long (maybe an hour?) but it’s all open-ended, so we’ll see. Currently still plodding ahead with the blue ‘Tassel stitch’ baby blanket and started another multi-color blue/white/lime green blanket in the stitch I did last (It’s from the Linus Project – another charity that collects blankets and, NO-I only borrowed their pattern, not joining another charity project group – that would be a little too much for me). I’m ‘trying’ to get my knit items delivered – need to take 40 baby hats to local hospital and about 5-6 blankets to Crisis Pregnancy Center’s mobile unit (they are a little hard to coordinate delivery times for – they are a mobile unit that travels all over; we’re looking at next week some time).

NOTE: Do not pour all of creamer into
cream cheese mixture at once – it will
get clumpy & no matter how long you
beat it, it will stay that way.

Recipe can be made ahead: Prepare
cheesecake mixture & refrigerate in
bowl. Mix all of fruit in large bowl &
refrigerate. Before serving, drain any
excess liquid from fruit then fold into
cheesecake mixture.

After living with my back being ‘less than great’ since Friday, I can now say that using the Icy Hot Smart Relief TENS therapy machine really worked to relax the muscles in my lower back. It took using it 5-6 times a day (half hour each session) but I finally don’t feel that pain and can stand up straight again! Thank You, Lord! I even cooked dinner last night (Potatoes O’Brian) – first time ‘testing’ how long I might be able to stand without pain or needing to sit down. Tonight is my special needs group – Music/Birthday Night – I’m going to attend but not stand up (much) if I can avoid it. For most of the evening I will be sitting at the piano, so that’s not a problem.

The evening before I felt the back injury I visited my oldest son’s family – while there I did a little ‘gentle’ wrestling with my older (10 1/2) grandson – there, I believe, was my mistake. Usually when he’s at our house we sit in my recliner & ‘wrestle’ – that’s fine. This time, it was sort of impromptu where I was standing up & he sort of ‘bent me over’, grabbing my neck which put my lower back into stress mode – didn’t hurt at the time but the next morning I couldn’t stand up straight without a lot of pain. This was my first visit with BOTH grandsons and it worked out great; I made sure I spent a good amount of time with older grandson FIRST before spending some time holding the baby.

Craft-wise, since I’ve been ‘sitting’ a lot
more than I would normally, I’ve finished
up the 40 baby hats for our local hospital
and started knitting more for the Detroit
Veteran’s Baby Shower coming in September.
Along with that project I made the ‘executive’
decision to rip out the green baby blanket
I’d been working on – the yarn is rather
heavy & bulky (and I don’t like knitting with
it!) so I came up with the idea to use it to
crochet a baby blanket instead. (Thank
you, Mary/Mama for the Diagonal Box
Stitch afghan pattern!) That pattern will
work out MUCH better using this yarn
(in fact, I already started it today). Still
working on the other (thinner yarn) baby
blanket – not sure just yet where it will
be donated.

Weather-wise it’s been a very SPRING
weather – starts out a little chilly (in
the low 30’s) but then climbs to the
upper 40’s & sometimes 50’s! Sunny,
clear, light breeze (of course I’ve only
been able to observe this through the
windows – anxious to just GET OUT
for a change – been inside now for
5 days – ugh! Cabin Fever!)

Hope you are enjoying this lovely
SPRING! Soon we will be seeing
trees, bushes & flowers bursting
forth – can’t wait! We already are
hearing some of the birds singing –
love hearing them, too! Can’t wait
to spot my first Robin – in Michigan
that’s usually our first bird to return
from down South (kind of a Michigan
thing to see who spots one first!)

Our weather warmed up some today to
almost 50 degrees F – that’s HUGE in
Michigan at this time of year…however,
along with the warm came breezes & rain
which made you feel chilled. Husband &
I had doctors appointments today and
I was really glad to finally get home, get
a warm sweatshirt, slippers & blanket
around me so that I could snuggle in
my recliner & read a book – it was THAT
chilly! (Of course, that was after I’d
already had a nice warm cup of Chai
Latte tea!). I’m fine, health-wise (knew
I was but because I’m diabetic my doctor
insists on seeing me every 3 months (could
be something to do with my insurance,
also). Husband finally got meds to help
him recover from the bronchitis – YAY!
Being sick with that for a week would
make anyone cranky! Dinner is chili; I
made a big batch yesterday and there
should be enough for at least 3 more
days (I make BIG batches!).

I also made the Banana Chocolate Chip
cake I’d posted a few posts ago – it was,
in my opinion, OK.

Banana Chocolate Swirl Cakewith Chocolate Glaze

It required you cover
the baked bundt cake with a chocolate
drizzle – let’s just say drizzle & I were
NOT friends – I had it ALL OVER – on
my hands, the counter, the cake,
my apron – UGH! After tasting the cake
I see no reason for it to need drizzle!
Husband liked it, so that’s good… will
I make that recipe again? Probably not.

Today our temperatures took a big dive – it’s 14 degrees F. outside and VERY windy, making it feel like -9 degrees F. Our special needs group has been canceled so I’ve been busy calling & texting everyone, making sure they don’t come tonight. I did go out grocery shopping and was really surprised at just how quickly the cold got through all my layers of warm clothing – not fun – thank heavens for a warm house, warm clothing and all our wants and needs covered – we are blessed.

Yesterday found me attempting to finish all the
‘extra’ knitting – managed to finish one of the
two sets of boot toppers – still have about 8
rows of ribbing (then sewing up) on the second
pair and then that’s done! YAY! I also took in
one small box of yarn to my knit group – all

but 3 skeins were taken. Our next meeting
(in 2 weeks) is the Yarn Swap so I’m hoping
to get rid of a lot more – we’ll see! There
is just too much to take in all at one time,
so I’m slowly going to take a little in each
meeting.

Had an unusual
happening last night: I brought in 6 very large
skeins of yarn that i had ordered on line – when
I got it I discovered it was not as thick as I
thought it was – you would need to knit using
two yarns together to have it thick enough.
In my carrying all the ‘stuff’ in , somehow one
of the balls must have fallen out – onto the
parking lot and into a very dirty puddle – I
found it next to my car when I came out
3 hours later. What to do? I dragged it home,
filled a bucket with warm water & Tide and
let it soak. Today I ‘squished’ it together with
my hands to get out the dirty water then
rinsed it. NOW what to do!? I ended up
remembering I had a net laundry bag I used
to use for washing baby socks (keeps them
from getting lost in the washer/dryer) so
I put the ball in that and stuck it in the dryer.
It went through 1 hour – still VERY wet so
I’m going to try to keep doing that for a
few 1 hour cycles and see what happens.
My thoughts are: it’s VERY dense & probably
will not dry inside – I (right now) don’t exactly
know what to do other than unrolling it, a
little at a time, and letting THAT part dry –
repeat process. We’ll see – it’s a BIG ball!
(Yes, I can hear some of you: why not just
pitch it!? Well, it IS a good yarn, cost
$7.00 – not a big expense but I’d hate to
just waste it – we’ll see…)

Hope you are all safe, warm and enjoying
the beginnings of this New Year. Today is
my middle son’s 28th birthday – baked him
his favorite: double chocolate brownies
(with tiny chocolate chips inside) and
frosted with dark chocolate frosting – the
house smells great!

Well, they weren’t wrong in predicting more snow for my area – another 2+ (was supposed to be 5, so I’m not too upset). Ended up calling our plow guy to ask him to do our drive, even though it’s not much snow – since we live ON a major highway the bottom of our drive is piled up with frozen ice/snow to where (if you have a small car) you might not make it UP the drive (just enough of a slope to where you need a ‘running start’ to get up it, with snow/ice involved. It’s about 25 degrees F out now with later predictions of freezing drizzle & light snow during the night – GREAT! I have choir practice from 6-8 p.m. tonight (NO chance of missing this one – tomorrow morning is the program!).

FINALLY finished the blue/green baby blanket – yes, people like it but the yarn makes the knitter a bit ‘blind’ if worked on too long – it’s a bit BRIGHT!

Brought out some more donated yarn (white & a federal slate blue) and started another (homeless) scarf – worked about 6 inches & decided it was too wide to be able to make a decent length before running out of yarn so started it again, narrower. Still wasn’t happy with the yarn – too scratchy so decided to dump that project and wait until tomorrow when I’m supposed to get 2 boxes & several BAGS of yarn (& some crochet things) from a lady at church. Sometimes just seeing new yarn gives me inspiration – we’ll see. (Next project will be another scarf – think I mentioned that last post).

24 oz. dry roasted cashews(can use
peanuts)
4 oz. unsweetened dark baking
chocolate, broken into pieces
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 lb. vanilla almond bark broken
into as small of pieces as you can
1 tsp. vanilla
–
(recipe best made in a 5 qt or
larger crockpot for easier stirring)
Spray insides of crockpot with
nonstick spray. Place cashews in
bottom of crockpot. Next a layer
of broken up dark chocolate &
chocolate chips. On top white
almond bark pieces. Cover &
cook on Low first hour, stirring
every 15 minutes using a spatula
or wooden spoon* After first hour,
stir every 30 minutes. When it starts
mixing really well but not quite all
melted, add vanilla & stir in well.
This can take 2-3 hours, depending
on how warm your crockpot gets.
(unless you are using a much older
first generation crockpot, skipping
the stirring process will result in
burnt cashews & chocolate.
After all is mixed well & smooth,
spoon out into empty cupcake
liners. Refrigerate until ready to
serve. Serves 4
*If you have a Warm feature on
your crockpot, cook on Warm for
the first 3 hours then just let it
melt as it won’t scorch before
stirring
NOTE: You can change up recipe
by adding pretzel bits, dry cereal,
different nuts or marshmallows at
very end as you are spooning
mixture into cups.
(recipe: crockpotladies.com)

==================

On the ‘getting it done’ front, finally have
one small fiber-optic up & lit, brought
down the rest of the Christmas ‘stuff’ –
good thing I went back up – forgot to
bring down the TOP of the tree! (it’s in
sections). Maybe between tomorrow &
Monday I’ll get the rest up (bigger tree
& lights on fireplace & secretary). We’ll
see … Paperwork-wise, I’m good – got
the new calendar finished & printed for
the knit group (Tues), remembered to
call Panera Monday to order 3 dozen
of their mini-chocolate chip cookies
(every year I get those along with some
small candy bars & put them on trays
for the knit group (my Christmas present
to them), got thank you cards done for
those in the special needs group who
gave me presents (they always want me
to open them BEFORE Christmas!) – it’s
coming together. Had an epiphany while
knitting: Mother of baby-to-be and her
Mom will be experimenting with baking
cookies & candy Monday (baby Mama
doesn’t cook) so I was thinking about
that; found a really nice wooden recipe
box with dividers & recipe cards on
Amazon – it’s ‘on it’s way before
Christmas’. I was texting with the other
grandma and we were mentioning
favorite cookie recipes – apparently
I have some she’s never heard of SOoooo
I thought: I’ll write some of them out
on some of the recipe cards & add
them to the recipe box! SCORE! I
love when a present idea hits –
especially when it’s an easy-to-
achieve one!

Not much else going on, trying to
conserve energies for later when
‘battling’ the snow & roads going
to & from church tonight. Sure hope
tomorrow mornings roads are clear!

Stay warm, drink a little something
you like (cocoa/tea/smoothie?) and
take a little time for yourself. It’s a
crazy time of year and we tend to
OVER-DO to the point where we’re
too exhausted to have any fun,
ourselves. (I know I’m guilty of that-
big time!).

Had a lovely Thanksgiving celebration at oldest son’s house with lots of food, 2 turkeys (one roasted/one smoked) – we brought home our leftovers but NO TURKEY! All of us here were saying: “Gee, wish we had some leftover turkey to make a sandwich!” That got me to thinking: “Wait! I have that FREE 10/12 lb. turkey I got last week!” It just came out of the oven and the house smells great! We still have leftover green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls – all I need to do is whip up some gravy & stuffing and we’re good for another few meals PLUS leftovers! Bought 2 packages of the ‘ready-made, comes in a roll’ pie crusts for making turkey pot pie next week – yum! Funny thing: at dinner on Thanksgiving our 10 yr old grandson piped up and said that his teacher had them write about something that brings memories of Thanksgiving – he wrote about Grandma’s (that’s ME!) homemade green bean casserole! Too funny! (Now his Dad hates the stuff, so for his son to hold it in such high regard I take as a HUGE compliment!)

Earlier I made a quick trip to the grocery store for a few things (like bread & milk); while in line to check out I got into a conversation with the check out lady – we were chatting about the great holiday food. She said something about having a lot of food at her house; the lady behind me said the same thing: “We had turkey AND ham, tons of sides, so much food!” and THEN she says: “I’m tired of it so I gave the leftovers to the GARBAGE DISPOSAL!” Wow – talk about really making me cringe! She could have called someone, maybe a homeless shelter, and donated whatever she had leftover! WHAT A WASTE! Even if she didn’t know anyone personally, I’m sure if she called a church or shelter they could direct her to SOMEONE who would LOVE to have what she was ‘sick of eating’ – sigh. (I’ll get off my soapbox now . . .)

In the realm of knitting, here’s the two
pairs of boot toppers I knit for my oldest
son’s girlfriend:

In case you might be wondering just WHAT you would do with these, here’s a photo (the person I knit mine for really LOVES wearing boots)

Our weather has changed a bit from the
forecasts of a few days ago; they were
predicting rain changing to snow and cold
(30’s) temperatures. I’m SUPER glad that
didn’t happen (at least, not yet); right
now it’s 40 degrees F. & cloudy – the
forecast for up to Tuesday is 40’s,
Tuesday High 54 with 30% chance of
rain – Hey, I can handle THAT!

Hope you are having a great weekend –
for those of you who went ‘Out Shopping’,
can’t say as I ‘feel for you’ – that’s one of
those “I WOULD NEVER!” things (I hate
crowds so NO amount of great price
deals would lure me in).

Hope you all had a great holiday, found
items you wanted (if you shopped) and
are able to relax a little and count your
blessings!